Mahler’s composing style typically involved:
The Tenth Symphony only reached the first draft Partitur stage for the first two movements (and the second movement lacks much of the orchestration). The third movement Partitur draft is incomplete while each of the short score drafts were complete (and indicate it was to have an uncommonly short duration movement in comparison to the rest of Mahler’s œuvre). The fourth and fifth movements only reached the continuous short score draft stage.
The manuscripts for the five movements are therefore numerous, as a single movement might be represented by manuscripts for: a Partitur draft; two short score drafts incorporating alternate versions; independent sketches; and inserts for the drafts and sketches.
| MS type | I / Adagio | II / 2. Scherzo - Finale | III / Nro 3. / Purgatorio oder |
IV / Der Teufel tanzt es mit mir | V / Finale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sketches | Yes, 6 pp.: BSB 22744, ÖNB 41000/6 | Yes, 10 pp.: 8 in ÖNB 41000/7 | No | Yes, 14 pp.: 1 in BSB 22748, 11 in ÖNB 41000/8, 3 in IMSLP 372926 | Yes, 3 pp.: ÖNB 41000/9 |
| Einlage | Yes, 2 pp.: BSB 22745, ÖNB 41000/6 | Yes, 2 pp.: ÖNB 41000/7 | No | (included above) | No |
| First draft SS | Yes, 8 pp., complete: ÖNB 41000/6 (I, II, IV, V, VI, VIII), 37817 (VII) Earlier versions, 3 pp.: ÖNB 37817, BSB 22746 Einlage, 1 p.: ÖNB 41000/6 |
Yes, 11 pp., complete: 10 in ÖNB 41000/7 (Ia, II–VIII) Einlage, 1 p.: ÖNB 41000/7 |
Yes, 2 pp., complete: ÖNB 41000/1 [1] & BSB 22747 [2] | Yes, 12 pp., complete: ÖNB 41000/4 | Yes, 9 pp. complete: ÖNB 41000/5 (1–7) and /9 (8,[9]) |
| Second draft SS | Yes, 9 pp., complete: BSB 22744 (1-7), ÖNB 41000/6 (9) Earlier versions, 3 pp.: BSB 22744 |
No | Yes, 3 pp., complete : ÖNB 41000/3 (2–3) & IMSLP 372922 (1) | No | Partial revision of first draft, 3 pp.: ÖNB 41000/5 (8–10) |
| Draft Partitur (FS) | Yes, 31 pp., complete: ÖNB 41000/1 | Yes, 39 pp., complete: ÖNB 41000/2 | Yes, 2 pp., incomplete: ÖNB 41000/3 | No | No |
| Total (174 pp. of music) | 63 pp. | 63 pp. | 7 pp. | 26 pp. | 15 pp. |
In the table above, ‘complete’ in respect of the draft short scores (SS) and Partitur (FS) means only that Mahler wrote a continuous movement from beginning to end. It does not mean the score was fully fleshed out; or that a listed source now has a complete version of it (in some cases pages from the one draft are in separate libraries!); or that all the pages that constituted the draft are currently extant. IMSLP lacks scans of at least 1 page of each of the short score drafts for movement I, one page of the short score and two pages of sketches for movement II, but appears to have all of the known materials for the remainder (famous last words).
| Sketches | Einlage | First draft SS | Second draft SS | Draft Partitur (FS) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ÖNB Mus.Hs.41000/6 Partial |
ÖNB Mus.Hs.41000/6 BSB Mus.ms.22745 Partial |
ÖNB Mus.Hs.41000/6 BSB Mus.ms.22746 Partial |
BSB Mus.ms.22744 | ÖNB Mus.Hs.41000/1 Complete |
